Four Marks

I haven't read the books, nor have I played the game... Just clicked on the first episode on a whim... The first episode made a solid first impression, but this one was an even better follow up... Some of the scenes felt they were running to someone else's agenda... For example, watching the Yennifer/slash/Istredd gave me the impression I had nodded off and missed an entire chunk of them skipping over the awkward and straight to the engaging tongues...

A little more development wouldn't go amiss..

But the reveals were heartfelt and nowhere near as clear cut as was implied at first.

First I have to say that I didn't play the games, neither read the books, so this is my introduction to The Witcher, and looks like you have to be a fan to catch some things. The Yennefer focused parts of the episode is quite confusing to me. I want to understand the magic of this universe, but this episode didn't helped me. Chaos is a source of magic and something, I expect that the next episodes help me to get this. There are other things that I didnt't understand, but are minor things. A lot of things is introduced in this episode as well. New locations, as Tor Lara, a academy of magic for women, Posada, there's Yennefer, introduced here and I know she will play a big role, Elves, some worldbuilding, I didn't get it all but I know thing will get clearer, I expect to at least.

Henry Cavill is really good here, expecting to see the encounter of he and Ciri, Anya is good at Yennefer, liked her acting, Ciri focused parts of this episode are a little meh, looks like not much is happening. There isn't much action in this episode, but that's ok for me. The directing is amazing, loved the photography, all the wide shots showing Posada are visually stunning, the costumes, production design, the technical stuff here is amazing. A good episode overall and I expect to be more invested in this story in the next episodes

I absolutely loved what they've done with retelling Yennefer's origin story, an interesting (for good reasons) change from the books! This episode does a great job of expanding on the world and establishing the role magic plays in the world of The Witcher.

The music and costumes are absolutely amazing and the acting is brilliant. I just wish the humour carried over from the books into this episode because the story we see Geralt follow was hilarious in the novel but it was a bit of a let down in this episode. However our favourite Bard makes a superb entrance and I think the unique friendship of these two male characters will be a highlight for the series going forward.

I should not have to read the book to understand what is going on. The show is not taking the time to explain things properly or at least this is how I feel at this point. Maybe things will come together, but somehow I feel like I am being cheated out of many aspects of the original story. I guess I will just have to read the book to fully understand it. This should not be the case.

Not much of action, but rather introducing a new character named Yennefer and focusing on her story. The writers had gone way too deep into her story, it could have been shortened. Again, the mix of the 3 timelines makes it a confusing but intriguing watch.